Those poor crooks!

A brush with theft involving young boys has Peter Mashala wondering whether poverty really is a cause of crime.

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Currently nursing an injured knee after an unfortunate incident, where I found myself chasing a thief after he broke into a mate’s car parked in my yard, I can’t help but wonder if Chandré Gould, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, is right when she says the notion that poverty causes crime is a myth.

Gould says there are seven common mistakes the public makes when thinking about crime. While I agree with the other six, I’m not sure about this one. According to her, it’s a mistaken belief that poverty causes crime in this country.

She says the high levels of inequality are more closely related to murder than poverty. She explains that when people with unequal levels of income live in communities close to one another, there is more likelihood of violent and property crime.

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Well, back to the incident. The two boys walked around the complex and no one really suspected them. My mate and I were sitting in the house when I suddenly heard a scratching sound coming from outside.

When I had a look, I saw the smaller boy standing behind the car. I thought he was one of the laaities from our complex.

When I stood up, I realised there was another guy inside the car. I gave chase, but I was unlucky, and was left with an injured knee.

Later, on talking to other community members about the incident, one of the guys told us this is actually a new trend, where older criminals use tiny boys for burglaries as they can easily fit through most burglar frames. Apparently they do this at night when people aren’t home.

We were quick to point out poverty as the reason why boys as little as 10 are turning to crime. I say we can’t simply write off poverty as the main reason for crime.

I don’t think people steal because they feel the income gap between them and their neighbouring community is too wide.